Dan Edelman, 1920-2013

Pioneer of modern public relations built Chicago firm into world's largest agency

January 16, 2013|By Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune reporter

Daniel J. Edelman in 1998. (Edelman Public Relations)

When transplanted New Yorker Dan Edelman opened his Chicago-based public relations firm in 1952, he had three employees and one client, the Toni Home Permanent Co., just down the hall at the Merchandise Mart.

From those humble roots, he built Edelman into the world's largest PR firm, improving the fortunes of everyone from Orville Redenbacher to Colonel Sanders while transforming an industry through innovation, creativity and a work ethic that never waned during more than six decades of making others look good.

Mr. Edelman, 92, considered a pioneer of modern public relations, died of heart failure on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since last summer, his family said.

"He never retired," said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the public relations firm his father founded. "He died with his boots on."

While Mr. Edelman ceded day-to-day leadership of the company to his son in 1997, he maintained an active role as chairman and kept up on client pitches and personnel moves affecting the family business, which remains independent in an industry dominated by international holding companies.

Born in New York City in 1920, Mr. Edelman attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he was sports editor of the school newspaper. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1940 from Columbia University, where he tutored fraternity brother Sid Luckman, who went on to be a star quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

In 1941, Mr. Edelman earned a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, taking a job as sports editor and reporter for a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., newspaper.

Drafted into the Army in 1942, Mr. Edelman was assigned to the 5th Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company, a psychological warfare unit. His job was to analyze German propaganda, providing information that was used by the Allies to counter with messages of their own.

After the war, Mr. Edelman went from being a New York-based music publicist to heading up public relations for Toni, which was headquartered in Chicago. He moved to Chicago in 1948 and created the first of many public relations innovations, the media tour, by sending six sets of attractive twins on a cross-country road trip to promote the ubiquitous advertising campaign, "Which Twin has the Toni?"

In 1952 he went out on his own with Toni as a client. Over the years, he helped build brands such as Sara Lee, KFC and 9Lives cat food, for which he helped make Morris the Cat a household name.

Mr. Edelman's firm hired movie star Vincent Price as spokesman for the California wine industry in 1966 and parlayed that association into a live celebrity taste test on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. The domestic vintage bested wine from France.

Another notable success was the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, a free consumer hotline that he created in 1981. One of the first of its kind, the hotline fields more than 100,000 calls each holiday season, saving Thanksgiving dinners and promoting the brand in a novel and enduring way.

Mr. Edelman's tenacity and creativity made him a formidable competitor, according to Al Golin, whose own Chicago-based public relations firm, GolinHarris, launched four years after Edelman.

"He was a giant in our industry and a terrific competitor," Golin said.

Mr. Edelman's skills in networking enabled him to forge relationships with some of the most powerful and influential leaders in his adopted city, according to Golin.

"He was a likable guy," Golin said. "He moved in social circles that helped the business a lot too. He became friendly with CEOs that helped him grow the business."

Edelman expanded domestically throughout the 1960s and opened its first office beyond North America, in London, in 1968. Co-headquartered in Chicago and New York, Edelman now has 4,600 employees in 66 cities, with annual billings of $660 million, according to the company. But it remains a privately held family business, with all three of Mr. Edelman's children involved in senior management. His greatest partner, however, was his wife of 59 years, Ruth, according to family.

"They really worked hard to build a business and it was a real partnership with my mother," said Renee Edelman, senior vice president of technology at Edelman. "My mother really contributed by being his life partner — his wife, his adviser and closest confidante."

A mental health advocate and member of the firm's board, Mr. Edelman's wife also serves as de facto executive editor of the weekly company newsletter, a role she still fills, executives said.

A longtime North Side resident, Mr. Edelman also was active in many civic causes, serving on the boards of the Committee for Economic Growth of Israel, the Illinois Children's Hospital and Aid Society, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Northwestern University's school of music and Save the Children Foundation. He was a former chairman of the University of Chicago Library Board.

Mr. Edelman stayed close to the firm throughout his hospitalization, talking over some client pitches as recently as this week, said his son, adding that his father's legacy will be the enduring family business.

"He lived to work," Richard Edelman said. "He wanted to work every day; he wanted to make a contribution."

Mr. Edelman is also survived by his son, John, and three granddaughters.